HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

May 16, 2018
by  Miki van Rooyen

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

We’ve all heard the horror stories about wedding photos gone bad!

Selecting the right wedding photographer to take picture-perfect wedding photos might just be one of the most important decisions that you will make as a couple when planning your wedding.

Booking a good photographer to do your wedding photography will result in you getting back images reflecting memories that you will cherish forever.

Wedding photography is unique in the sense that you don’t get a do-over. Your wedding day only happens once, so the wedding photographer has one shot at covering your day and getting the shots. You need to have an experienced wedding photographer who thinks on their feet.

Here are a few tips when selecting a wedding photographer:

1. 1. The first step would be to spend some time looking at various wedding photography websites, and exploring different wedding photographers’ work. This way you will form an idea of what kind of photography style suits you best.

2. 2. Set up a meeting and see if you get along with the wedding photographer. You will most likely spend most of your day with that person, so it is vital that you understand each other, and get along well.

3. 3. Find the balance between budget and style. Your dream photographer might be out of your budget range, so then you will need to compromise. Find someone that fits in your budget, and whose work you still love. If you are set on booking a photographer who is a bit out of your range, perhaps ask whether they are going to run promotions – some photographers give better rates for winter weddings, so you can consider getting married in winter.

4. 

5. 4. Word of mouth – chat with your friends and family members who got married recently, and ask if they can recommend any good photographers. They will give you all the inside info and will be able to answer many of your questions already.

6. 5. Make sure the photographer meets your expectations. Some photographers do lots of shots with lights and do night shots, and others only rely on natural light. This aligns with the first tip in finding a style you like. Make sure you communicate your expectations so you don’t feel disappointed on the day.

7.  6. Trust, and let go. This really is the most important of all. Once you have followed the tips above, let go. You know you like your photographer. You appreciate their style of wedding photography. They know what your expectations are. Now, let go. Enjoy your day to the fullest – it goes by quicker than you can imagine. 🙂

You can go here to view more of our Wedding Photography and find the style you like

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309 BROOKS STR, MENLO PARK, PRETORIA,0081

CORPORATE WORK: 082 448 9662

WEDDINGS & LIFESTYLE: 082 652 6059

HOW TO COVER A

CORPORATE EVENT

April 11, 2018
by  Miki van Rooyen

How to cover a corporate event

Everyone thinks corporate event photography is easier than wedding photography…

It is not.

At a wedding everyone and everything is pretty, at a corporate event you have a nice stage (if you are lucky) and some delegates.

Your job as a corporate photographer is to make the event look better than it actually is.

Here are some tips that we live by when photographing an event.

• Stating the obvious, but always make sure you have the correct gear for the event. A lot of our corporate events entails shooting in low light, and having to sneak in candid shots. For this we love using the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS II USM lens. It is super sharp, and the f/2.8 is great for low light situations.

• Another favourite is the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L II USM lens. It is so versatile, it makes it possible to cover an entire conference with just the one lens.

• Another obvious, though important one; make sure you have enough batteries and memory cards.

• Don’t stop shooting until you have got the perfect shot. Move around, check your angles. An average shot is not good enough. You have to keep moving. Don’t take the shot, and just go sit and play on your phone. Watch people, search for light.

• Some of our best corporate shots have come from a long time waiting for the perfect shot – wait for your subject to smile or talk in the right way, for them to look in the correct direction to make that one perfect shot.

• Always get the basic “expected” photos and then go for the creative ones; try and use the available ambient light to your advantage.

• We prefer natural light, but again, you need a good lens, and more importantly, a steady hand. Practice shooting at a slow shutter speed. A shutter speed of between 1/20 and 1/80 are where you want to be. The shutter is slow enough to allow the ambient light in. The slower the shutter speed, the more ambient light you get.

• If you need to use a flash, which has its place, please don’t flash directly at your subject. The flash is always pointed up. Again, make use of a slow shutter speed to allow the light from the flash to travel to your subject.

• Don’t be afraid to stand in front of people. Many times you will have to stand in front of someone in order to get the shot. Try to be mindful, but if you have to block someone’s view of the speaker for a few minutes so you can get your shot, they will just have to understand, that is just part of corporate event photography.

• Some companies, like The Economist, build beautiful stages with great lighting. Some stages are ugly and dark. If it is an attractive stage, show it. If not, hide it by framing the speaker/subject with people or objects. You can even use a water bottle in front of the lens to make the shot look interesting.

• Make sure the speaker looks good. Sure not all people look good talking, but wait for the shot. Make sure you get a flattering photo. Be kind.

• You MUST get the shot. You are the photographer, commissioned to do the work. If you don’t get the shot because you were too afraid of some or the other thing, you disappoint the client and miss the opportunity to get a great shot.

Here are some examples and explanations of how we got some of these shots.

Example 1 – Photo from Financial Times

This photo did not happen by accident, it was not a lucky shot. This person looked the other way all through the panel discussion, but just for a few seconds he turned his face the other way and smiled. I spent about 15min on my knees looking through my viewfinder, waiting for him to turn his head the other way. This shot was photographed like this, there was no cropping afterwards. Note the “Financial Times” at the bottom of the photo. It shows a beautiful, flattering expression, and lets you know where this was taken. Perfect.

Example 2 – Photo from The Economist

Here we got all the boring, normal angles of the guest speaker. I then started walking up and down the venue to see if I can get something different. I finally went to the edge of the stage and saw how nice the spotlight fell on the edge of his face and took this great photo! If you don’t move around, you won’t see different angles.

Example 3 – Photo from Amazon Web Services

This is a photo of a delegate at the Amazon web services conference in Cape Town. The room was extremely dark and the only ambient light came from the stage. I had to photograph this at 1/15 F2.8, ISO 3200 to give the stage light enough time to travel to my subject. If I used a flash I would have blown out all the ambient light, and the photograph would have lost its mood.

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309 BROOKS STR, MENLO PARK, PRETORIA,0081

CORPORATE WORK: 082 448 9662

WEDDINGS & LIFESTYLE: 082 652 6059

The making of the corporate

video for CSIR Cmore

March 22, 2018  
by Miki van Rooyen

Have a look at our article on the corporate video we did for the CSIR about their Cmore project.

We filmed this video over 2 days on the border of the Kruger National Park at GKEPF (The Greater Kruger Environmental Protection foundation) just outside the Orpen gate.

Overview

We have a proven track record with the CSIR in Pretoria as we have been their go to suppliers when it comes to corporate photography and corporate videography in Pretoria and all around South Africa.

The CSIR Pretoria approached us to help them with a marketing video for the Cmore system. The script was written by internal communications at the CSIR in Pretoria.

As with most projects these days, we had a very small and limited budget.

With only a script and 2 days booked at GKEPF we drove to the Low-veld. We where only a team of 4 people, 1 camera operator Pieter from Kaimara,the client Lesa and Estelle from the CSIR and Elise from stoprhinopoaching.com

On our arrival at GKEPF we where met by Otch, the main guy in charge at GKEPF, luckily we knew him very well and he was the person who was going to help us to get things done and organised, small things like rangers, a helicopter and some dogs, and of course some poachers (actors). This helped us a lot to keep costs down in the production of this video.

What is Cmore, click here to read more about it:

http://cmore.co.za/site/index.php/about

The Steps we took in making this video:

Planning, scripting and filming

The corporate video script was written by Lesa with inputs from the cmore team.

As with most things we started with the beginning, we walked into the GKEPF office and just started filming.

We did a quick setup and got some b-role of the people working in the office, I then mic’ed up each person and we recorded one line at a time until we got all the lines on the script.

We filmed all the interviews and office scenes on Day 1.

We also made sure that everything we needed for the b-role was organised before the end of day 1.

Day 2 started very early, and we made sure we started with the first available light.

We had 5 rangers ready to assist us with 1 dog. We turned 2 of the rangers into poachers.

I first went and shot all the scenes of the poachers on their own in the bush, then we filmed the rangers tracking them.

When the helicopter arrived we dropped everything and quickly filmed the helicopter and aerial video scenes, so that the helicopter can go back to doing real work.

We finished the day of filming the chase scene and the scene where the rangers finally captures the poachers.

I filmed the above scene, capturing of the poachers once with a GoPro with a Karma grip and then again hand held with the 5dmkiv, I mostly filmed each scene twice or at most 3 times with different cameras or techniques, as I was the only camera operator.

This gave me more options in editing.

Gear used

I knew we had a small budget, so I took the minimum video gear.

What was in my bag:

1 x Canon 5dMKIV – Great versatile camera with slow motion video, 4K video and great colour science, great for harsh environments and reliable.

1 x Canon 70D – Great as a second camera for interviews

1 x Canon 27-70mm F2.8 Mkii

1 x Canon 70-200mm F2.8 Mkii

1 x GoPro Hero 5 with a Karma grip – Easy to use gimbal, small and easy to fit into my camera bag.

1 x Rhino slider – Best slider in the world.

1 x Manfrotto tripod with video head – At least one proper video tripod

1 x 3 Legged thing – Albert – Great for second angle, small and great for travelling.

1 x H4 Zoom recorder – Good sound

1 x Sennheiser lapel mic – great little mic

1 x Sennheiser Earphones – Always listen to your sound when you record

2 x Variable ND filters

1 x Evoc camera bag to put all these stuff inside.

1 x Tripod bag for 2 tripods and the video slider.

Post Production

After 2 long days in the bush we went back to Pretoria.

When I arrived back, I backed up the video footage and dumped all the files.

Step 1 was to Pluraleyes (syncing audio and video files) all the interviews.

I then edited the interviews and chose all the nice lines.

Working with the script I edited all the lines together to get the story right.

When I was finally happy with the story I started with the intro and adding all the b-role footage.

I then graded the video to make it more difficult to tell the time of day as we did shoot some scenes out of sequence.

I edited this corporate video using Adobe’s Premier Pro, 1 x 4TB USB-C LACIE hard drive and a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016)

Here is the final video:

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309 BROOKS STR, MENLO PARK, PRETORIA, 0081

CORPORATE WORK: 082 448 9662

WEDDINGS & LIFESTYLE: 082 652 6059

CORPORATE PHOTOGRAPHY |

SEDA ANNUAL REPORT

January 10, 2017 
by Miki van Rooyen

It’s a brand new year, and we’re looking forward to all the little adventures 2017 has in store for us!

2016 was a very successful year for Kaimara, which we are extremely grateful for. One of the bigger projects we were involved in was SEDA’s Annual Report. We were sent all around the country to photograph their success stories, and got to meet interesting, innovative people.

You are welcome to have a look at the report here: http://www.seda.co.za/Publications/Publications/Seda%20Annual%20Report%202015-16.pdf

GET IN TOUCH

309 BROOKS STR, MENLO PARK, PRETORIA, 0081

CORPORATE WORK: 082 448 9662

WEDDINGS & LIFESTYLE: 082 652 6059